AN 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



XTEW-VORK HISTORXCil.Ii SOCIXSTV, 



THURSDAY, DEC. 13, 1827. 



BY JOSEPH BLUNT. 



L 



NEW-YORK ; 
PUBLISHED BY G. AND C CARVILL. 

EI.UOTT AND PALMER, PRINTERS. 

1828. 



^ 



AN 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



XTEW-VORX HISTORICAZ. SOCIETV, 



THURSDAY, DEC. 13, 1827. 



BY JOSEPH BLUNT. 



NEW-YORK : 
FUBLISHES BY G. AND C. CARVILL. 

ELLIOTT AND PALMER, PRINTERS. 



1828^ 



6^/ 



fllG 



New- York Historical Society, ) 

Jan. 15, 1828. \ 

Resolved unanimously, That the thanks of 
this Society be pr^esented to Joseph Blunt, Esq. 
for the Discourse lately delivered by him before the 
Society ; that a copy be requested for publication, 
and that Dr. J. W. Francis and Charles King, 
Esq. be a committee to carry this resolution into 
effect. 

[Extract from the Minutes.] 

FREDERIC DE PEYSTER, Jun. 

Corresponding Secretary, 



ANNXVERSARY DISCOURSE. 



Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the" Historical Society, 

We live in an extraordinary age. It may em- 
phatically be denominated an age of improvement. 
Mechanical inventions, scientific discoveries and 
advances in political knowledge, are daily bringing 
about great changes in the condition of society ; 
and scarcely have we time to contemplate these 
changes, and to speculate concerning their proba- 
ble effects, ere our anticipations are realized, and 
our attention is occupied by new improvements, 
whose results are beyond the grasp of the most vi- 
vid imagination. 

The community in which we live, remarkably ex- 
emplifies these striking characteristics of the age. It 
comprehends within its bosom many, who have seen 
its day of small beginnings, and who within their own 
lives have witnessed the rapid growth of a few pro- 
vincial dependencies into this powerful confederacy. 
These considerations cannot be overlooked by any 



person familiar with American History ; and yield- 
ing to their influence, I propose, in discharge of the 
duty assigned to me by the Historical Society, to 
review the history of the European settlements in 
America, and their influence upon the condition of 
the civilized world. 

By contemplating the condition of Europe at the 
time of the first migration to this continent ; by re- 
viewing the motives which induced its early set- 
tlers to leave their native land for a savage wilder- 
ness ; by setting forth the principles by which they 
were governed, and the course of conduct they pur- 
sued, we are enabled justly to estimate the extent 
of their sacrifices, the value of the inheritance which 
has been transmitted to us, and the nature of our 
duties towards those who are to follow us. In this 
manner we associate ourselves with those who pre- 
cede us in the march of existence ; we constitute 
ourselves a part of those who give character to a 
nation ; we share in their adversity and in their 
prosperity ; we partake of their labours ; we re- 
joice in their success ; we identify ourselves with 
the cause for which they sufiered, and at once live 
with our ancestors and for our posterity. 

Such a review has important uses. It compels 
us to reflect upon the nature of our institutions, the 



manner in which they have been built up ; and by 
recurringto their foundations we add new strength 
to the principles by which they are sustained. We 
are animated to fresh exertion in our national career, 
by going back to the original fountains from which 
American freedom and prosperity have been de- 
rived. 

History is experience teaching by example ; but 
it is not by ordinary examples that her wholesome 
lessons are taught. The mean and selfish motives, 
which so often enter into the inducements to glo- 
rious achievements, are forgotten in the lapse of ages. 
The petty intrigues and personal quarrels which so 
often influence the fate of empires, pass to oblivion 
with those by whom they were fomented ; and the 
character of the age, marked by its prominent moral 
and intellectual qualities, alone remains to animate 
or to warn succeeding generations. 

The distinctive marks of the period, from which 
we date the commencement of American history, 
are easily ascertained. The obscurity which hangs 
over the origin of other nations, and which affords 
ample opportunity for the erection and demolition 
of plausible theories, does not darken the period in 
which the European settlements in America were 
established. Science and learning shed their full 



8 



light upon tlie communities, from which they mi- 
grated. Their motives and actions were exposed to 
the spirit of inquiry which distinguished the age. 
The peculiar characteristics of the early colonists 
are fully detailed and faithfully preserved by their 
contemporaries, and we are not left to conjecture 
for the materials of American history. 

In examining the annals of the settlements, now 
composing the North American confederacy, our at- 
tention is not attracted, nor a feverish excitement 
produced, by a series of brilliant military achieve- 
ments. No splendid conquests nor murderous battles, 
in which myriads of the human race were sacrificed, 
to extend a boundary line, or perpetuate a dynasty, 
enliven the matter-of-fact history of the American 
people. The tinsel decorations of martial renown 
are not the appropriate ornaments of our national 
annals. They have a more real and solid interest. 
They come down to us adorned with their triumphs ; 
but they are not the triumphs of physical force. 
They are the triumphs of intellect, oflibert}- politi- 
cal and religious. They are the triumphs of an en- 
lightened policy over the prejudices of a scholastic 
and bigolted age ; of free institutions over the abuses 
of the feudal system ; of the right of conscience over 
persecution ; of freedom over despotism and slavery. 
These are victories over which the philanthropist 



need not mourn They are debased by no alloy. 
They are achieved at a comparative small expense 
of blood and treasure ; but they are more valuable 
to mankind, and more momentous in their conse- 
quences, than all the battles ever gained by all the 
heroic scourges of humanity, who have graced 
the annals of warlike achievement. They have a 
permanent interest, which is connected with the im^ 
provement of our nature and the happiness of man ; 
with the ascendancy of all that is enlightened and 
free and ennobling, over what is ignorant and slavish 
and debasing. We, and all who come after us, 
participate in such triumphs, and are the rightful 
heirs to their glorious results. The annals of the 
American people are thronged with such victories. 
From their first inception to the present day, they 
form one great procession of triumphs. Their 
whole tendency has been to emancipate the human 
mind from the bonds of prejudice, to extend and 
perpetuate the sway of reason, to establish political, 
religious and commercial freedom, all essential parts 
of one great system, upon a firm and permanent 
basis. 

At the period when America was discovered, 
the political condition of Europe was of the most 
arbitrary character, and the tendency of its civil in- 
stitutions endangered even the few privileges, which 

2 



10 



had been preserved from the grasp of civil and reli- 
gious tyranny. The feudal system had received a 
fatal blow, but its relics incumbered the face of so- 
ciety and presented the most formidable obstacles 
to the progress of improvement. All the absurd 
doctrines, which had taken root during the dark 
ages, and had grown up under the protecting shade 
of monastic superstition, still flourished and were 
received as established truths. The divine right of 
a certain race to govern a kingdom, was maintained 
with as much zeal, as if it had been a dogma essen- 
tial to salvation. The infallibility of the head of 
the Papal church, or the authority of an individual 
selected by a few cardinals, to bind the consciences 
of his fellows in all matters of faith, was still unques- 
tioned. This extraordinary authority even extend- 
ed to temporal affairs, and the monarchs of the lead- 
ing powers were in the habit of availing themselves 
of it, as a great political engine. The principles 
of commerce were conformable to the general cha- 
racter of the age ; and the efforts of those few 
rulers who made it an object of attention, were di^- 
rected rather to secure a monopoly, than to extend 
the trade of their kingdoms, by developing their 
resources, and by encouraging domestic indus- 
try. It was a sort of predatory commerce, in- 
stead of a fair and legitimate exchange of the pro- 
ductions of human industry. In short, throughout 



11 



Christendom the religious feeling was intolerant, 
the political system despotic, and the commercial 
policy narrow and monopolizing. 

The first tendency of this state of things was to 
reduce the newly discovered world to the most ab- 
ject condition. According to the established code 
of public law, the American continent with its in- 
habitants, became the property of the monarchs 
whose subjects discovered it. Alexander VI, who 
then filled the Papal chair, arrogating to himself, 
as Christ's vicegerent, the right of disposing of all 
heathen countries, divided the new discoveries be- 
tween the crowns of Spain and Portugal, and these 
powers immediately began to extend their sway over 
the western hemisphere. The adventurous soldiers 
and mariners of those nations, then in the zenith of 
their power, soon reduced the numerous but timid 
aborigines to subjection ; and measures were at once 
adopted, to render the wealth and resources of the 
new possessions available to the European govern- 
ments. These measures are too faithfully related, 
by some of the companions of those adventurers, 
whose hearts were not wholly closed to the appeals 
of suffering humanity. The predominant feeling 
of the Christian world is there fully developed in 
action ; and Bigotry, stimulated by Avarice, is seen 
exciting the followers of Cortez and Pizarro, to in- 



12 



discriminate plunder and massacre of a race, whose 
peaceful and inoffensive habits offered the ;most 
powerful plea in their behalf, and whose undeserved 
fate has excited almost a general regret, that their 
country was ever exposed to the enterprise and cu- 
pidity of Europe. Even submission on the part of 
the natives, caused no alleviation of their sufferings. 
Doomed to labour in the mines for gold, to satisfy 
the insatiable avarice of their conquerors, they 
found reason to envy the fate of their more fortu- 
nate countrymen, who had fallen in battle. If these 
acts of humanity had been unauthorized, we might 
have ascribed them to individual depravity ; but un- 
fortunately they are essential parts of the system 
adopted towards America, and the legitimate re- 
sults of principles preached from the pulpit and 
practised by the sovereigns of the age. The dis- 
cussions between LasCasas-and Sepulveda, whether 
the natives of the new world became the subjects 
of the Spanish crown, or the private property of the 
conquerors, show the small estimation in which 
American rights were held by European casuists. 
At the present day public opinion could not tole- 
rate the idea, that a people might be reduced to sla- 
very, and their property seized by the conquerors, 
solely because they were of another religious faith ; 
but according to the reasoning of that age, the in- 
habitants of heathen countries were destitute of civil 



13 



and natural rights. Religious intolerance erected 
itself Into an infallible tribunal, and adjudged their 
claims " to life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
ness," to be unsupported by gospel or reason. The 
same anti-social principle — a principle which sprung 
from the union of scholastic philosophy and Gothic 
ignorance — soon became ascendant in politics as 
well as religion, and the doctrine of perpetual and 
unalienable allegiance was now introduced, to secure 
the dependency of the European settlements in 
America, and to reduce their inhabitants to the 
political level of aborigines. The right of kings 
to rule was no longer earned by services in the ca- 
binet or field, but was maintained as depending 
upon religious faith. The doctrine which now in- 
fests Europe under the appellation of legitimacy, 
and is vindicated under the pretence of upholding 
civil order, then existed as a divine right, which 
could not be questioned without offending the Deity ; 
and the ominous ruin of church and state, in which 
religious intolerance and civil tyranny are leagued 
to sustain each other by alternate appeals to spirit- 
ual hopes and human fears, threatened to extend its 
sway over both worlds, and to deprive the objects 
of its vengeance of all earthly asylum. 

If the claim of the Spanish crown to the whole 
western continent had been unquestioned, its condi- 



14 



tion at this time would probably have resembled 
that, from which her colonies have so recently eman- 
cipated themselves. It is impossible to estimate 
with accuracy the effect, which the establishment of 
that claim to this hemisphere, would have produced 
upon the happiness and freedom of mankind ; but 
the injuries inflicted by the blighting policy of that 
court upon all territories subjected to its authority, 
entitle us to presume, that it would have caused re- 
sults equally extensive and destructive to the best 
interests of humanity. 

Fortunately, however, for the cause of truth ; 
fortunately for mankind, the northern parts of 
America were claimed b}- other European pow- 
ers, and as they did not offer the same temp- 
tations to Spanish cupidity, these claims in time 
acquired a valid character. IN either the cli- 
mate nor soil allured the first American adven- 
turers to these shores. Avarice could not be easily 
gratified by the productions of North America, nor 
could wealth be acquired without labour, by those 
who established themselves there as colonists. The 
consequence of this happy poverty was, that the co- 
lonists were not men of desperate fortunes and des- 
perate characters, seeking by violence, wealth to 
squander in the accustomed haunts of vice at home. 
They were men migrating here to found a nation. 



15 



They were seeking here a permanent country, and 
to build up institutions for themselves and their 
children. 

It is still more fortunate, that whilst these causes 
preserved the Northern continent from the grasp of 
Spain, and prevented any premature settlements 
there, the spirit of reform was actively at work ia 
Europe, and the collision between those who sus- 
tained the ancient superstitions, and those who 
waged war upon them, was preparing fit materials 
for the population of the transatlantic republics. 
Persecution and violence on the part of the domi- 
nant party, was furnishing colonies for America 
from among the intrepid, the conscientious, and the 
pure minded. Those who valued truth, religious 
faith, and a peaceful conscience above all else, were 
thus driven into the ranks of the American settlers* 

The reformation which commenced shortly after 
the discovery of this continent, had now fully 
awakened the public mind in Europe. The first 
reformers were private individuals unsupported by 
a party, and only sustained by their unextinguisha- 
ble enthusiasm and confidence in a good cause. 
Their first partisans were drawn from the poor — 
the humble — the oppressed ; — from among those, 
who not being interested in perpetuating old abuses 



IG 



and deriving no authority from them, added no 
weight to the side they adopted, except the moral 
power of their disinterested testimony. They 
brought no armies, no overflowing coffers, no 
bands of feudal dependants, to the cause they es- 
poused. Their whole strength was a moral force ; 
but that lever rested upon public opinion, and the 
ancient order of things was shaken and overthrown 
by its omnipotent action. Men began to examine 
for themselves in matters, before that time regarded 
as beyond the reach of investigation. A spirit of in- 
quiry pervaded society, and the test of an awakened 
reason was applied to the claims of the existing re- 
ligious establishments. The monarchs who then 
governed the great European kingdoms, were not 
slow in perceiving, that the surest foundations of 
their thrones were immediately connected with the 
superstitions of the church. They accordingly 
took measures to enforce its denunciations against 
such dangerous opinions, and Europe soon beheld 
her sovereigns combining to sustain a religious es- 
tablishment, that in the plenitude of its power had 
compelled the proudest monarchs to descend from 
their thrones, and kneel as suppliants at the feet of 
imperial Rome. 

Political considerations induced some to swerve 
from this course ; but from the commencement of 



11 



the reformation in 1520, until the settlement of Ply- 
mouth just a century afterwards by a few English 
non-conformists, the European governments mani- 
fested the most intolerant and persecuting spirit to- 
wards all their subjects, who assumed the liberty of 
thinking for themselves in matters of faith. 

In Germany, where the Reformation broke out, 
a furious contest was carried on for more than a 
century between the Catholics and Protestants, and 
the surrounding powers were often involved in the 
war as allies or arbiters. The treaty of Westpha- 
lia in 1648, gave them both peace and religious to- 
leration ; but before that pacification it seemed as 
if the fiends of darkness had been let loose to carry 
on the quarrels of the church. It is true, that in 
this portion of Europe the reforming party main- 
tained itself, and brought the conflict to a successful 
result ; but this success was purchased by the most 
painful sacrifices. Their religious freedom was 
maintained by unremitting efforts both in the cabhiet 
and in the field. It was guarded by a sword con- 
stantly unsheathed. So far from being able to offer 
an asylum to others, they were themselves reduced 
to the extremity of distress, and were often indebted 
for their preservation to combinations of circum- 
stances almost miraculous. It was not in a country 
thus afflicted and overrun by contending armies, 
3 



18 



which from the length of the contest degenerated 
into mercenary bands ready to enlist under the 
most celebrated leader — seeking wars as their 
proper employment and plunder for their reward ; 
that Christians, who longed for peaceful toleration, 
could find the object of their desires. 

The other kingdoms of Europe presented similar 
scenes of conftision and anarchy. The Netherlands 
were distracted by a rebellion, which was provoked 
by the impolitic and unrelenting severity of the 
Spanish court, and terminated in their sepa- 
ration from Spain. This rebellion or civil war 
grew out of religious intolerance, and continued 
nearly eighty years, wasting the strength and trea- 
sures of Spain in fruitless attempts to reduce the 
United Provinces to submission, and destroying 
their security and' happiness during this protracted 
contest. 

The contemporaneous history of France does not 
afford a more favourable account of the tranquillity 
of that powerful kingdom. The infamous massacre 
of St. Bartholemew, planned and executed by the 
court, indicates the spirit in which the religious 
contest was carried on ; while the wars of the 3d 
and 4th Henrys against their own subjects ; the 
numerous towns, computed at more than 400, de- 



19 



stroyed by the contending sects ; and the distrust 
constantly evinced whenever the leaders met in 
times of hollow truce, all manifest the wide extent 
of the religious feud and the deeply-rooted rancour 
harboured towards the Protestants by the dominant 
party. Scotland and England were governed upon 
the same intolerant principles. 

All Europe was vexed by religious warfare. The 
quarrels and persecutions of ambitious monarchs 
and intolerant priests, had wearied the patience of 
their long-suffering subjects, and they wishfully 
cast their longing eyes in search of an asylum in 
that newly-discovered continent beyond the western 
ocean. The accounts of a new world teeming with 
plenty and bringing forth spontaneous productions 
under ever-sunny skies, were now in all men's 
mouths, and were eagerly listened to by the perse- 
cuted — despairing Protestants. It seemed as if in 
the moment of deepest distress, that their despond- 
ing hearts were cheered by the suggestions of some 
angel-spirit, that beyond the waste of waters which 
had confined the human race to the old continent, 
to suffer all that humanity could endure, or tyrants 
inflict, there was another and a better world. The 
followers and companions of Du Plessis and Co- 
ligny in France ; of Barnevelt and Grotius in Hol- 
land; of Hampden and Milton in England, all 
looked to America as an asylum. 



20 



It was from this class — this disseuiifKi — perse- 
cuted minority, that the ancestors of the American 
people were drawn ; and it was owing to the univer- 
sality of this feeling among them, that the tide of 
emigration swelled so rapidly when it began to flow. 
Whilst the eastern colonies were settled by the 
English Puritans, the adjacent provinces offered a 
similar shelter to the Hugenots, and the Dutch and 
German Reformers. This description of population 
gave a sobriety of purpose and a religious charac- 
ter to the whole colonies, and prevented the southern 
settlements from degenerating into mere trading es- 
tablishments. 

It also enforced the necessity of a tolerating 
spirit. Our English ancestors were not only Pro- 
testants in religion, but they were Dissenters from 
the political faith of their countrymen. In their 
struggles against the religious supremacy of the 
crown, tiiey often questioned its temporal authority. 
They felt a yearning for the dawn of that day of 
civil freedom, which their descendants now enjoy. 
They were in fact the vanguard of that stern — 
austere band of Presbyterians, who in the next ge- 
neration established the commonwealth upon the 
ruins of the monarchy, and brought their misguided 
sovereign to the scaffold, for ofl'ences against the 
people of England. They had not, it is true, such 
well-grounded ideas of civil freedom, as are now 



21 



prevalent. They were not born under a written 
constitution ; nor had they grown up under a free 
and well-balanced government ; but the} had been 
taught the value of freedom in the school of perse- 
cution. The cruel tyranny which had driven them 
from their own country ; the hardships and priva- 
tions they had undergone in establishing themselves 
here, were all so many testimonials against an ar- 
bitrary government, and unanswerable proofs in 
favour of the rights of man. 

In the lapse of a few years, the feelings which 
were naturally entertained against the particular 
sects, by whom the first settlers had been exiled, 
were modified. Succeeding generations became 
heirs only to the strong dislike against tyranny in 
general, and the want of rich religious endowments, 
by depriving theological teachers of all temporal 
motives to persecution, took away the chief cause of 
religious intolerance. Accordingly when the mother 
country undertook to streighten the bonds of go- 
vernment and to reduce the colonies to uncondi- 
tional submission, we find them overlooking minor 
points of difference, in order to preserve their poli- 
tical freedom. The Catholics of Maryland, the 
Episcopalians of New-York and Virginia, the Hu- 
genots of Carolina, and the descendants of the 
German and Dutch reformers, who were planted in 



22 



several parts of the Union, joined with the Puritans 
ofNew England in opposing the usurpations of Great 
Britain. They all felt that unless their resistance 
was successful, both civil and religious freedom 
would be at the discretion of the British ministry, 
and in the presence of the common foe they buried 
their theological difl'erences. As they had pur- 
chased their religious freedom by relinquishing 
their homes and kindred, they now made a sacri- 
fice of sectarian prejudices upon the shrine of civil 
liberty and national independence, and religious 
toleration was thus made the key-stone of the 
American Union. But though it is a fortunate 
circumstance that the dissenters of other nations 
made settlements in this country, there is no reason 
to regret that the chief provinces, which materially 
influenced the character of the whole, were settled 
by English non-conformists. 

The country from which they came, though far 
from furnishing a perfect model for a free govern- 
ment, was infinitely superior in that particular to 
any then existing in Europe ; and from its arbitrary 
features and the despotic principles of its ruling 
monarch, this sect had uniformly dissented. It is 
not, however, by their partiality for free institutions 
alone, that the English Puritans were peculiarly 
fitted to become the founders of a great nation. 



23 



The qualities and principles which distinguished 
this extraordinary sect, are well worthy of a chief 
place among the circumstances, which formed the 
character and controlled the destiny of the Ameri- 
can people. The Puritans not only rejected the 
creed of the Catholic church, but they had separated 
from the Protestant church, because in their judg- 
ment it was still tainted with Romish superstitions. 
They aimed at a more thorough reformation, and 
to bring their chosen flock back to the primitive 
simplicity of the apostolic age. Their system of 
faith was one of self-denial, humiliation and prayer. 
It rendered every passion subservient to a vehement 
desire of knowing and executing the will of Provi- 
dence. All temporal motives, ambition, avarice,^ 
self-love, all were swallowed up in this one absorb- 
ing feeling. Earthly riches they regarded as dross. 
Their hearts were fixed on that spiritual wealth, 
which the meanest member of the congregation 
claimed as his inheritance. Human honours they 
despised as transitory and dependent upon the 
breath of man. They were heirs to immortal 
crowns, and celestial thrones and eternal honours 
awaited them, when they were released from the 
bonds of flesh. For this they relinquished all those 
objects, which the mass of mankind pursue with such 
ardour, and became the tenants of a prison, the 
victims of the Star-chamber, and the subjects of 
persecution and exile. 



24 



Dangers could not deter such men ; for death 
they welcomed as a translation to the realms pf 
bliss. Titles and honours could not seduce; for 
their imaginations were beyond the reach of tempo- 
ral motives. In their paroxysms of religious en- 
thusiasm, in their gloomy fits of humiliation and 
despair, they seemed subjects for pity and commi- 
seration ; but when these mental clouds had passed, 
they came to the business of life with an intensity 
of purpose and a thorough devotion of every phy- 
sical and mental faculty, which triumphed over dif- 
ficulty and trampled every obstacle under foot. 
This state of religious exaltation proved an admi- 
rable support in all parts of their trying career. It 
enabled them to continue their course with unfal- 
tering step, when men under the influence of ordi- 
nary motives would have turned back in despair. 
It sustained them in their cruel persecution at 
home ; in the solemn moment of parting from their 
native land ; in their long and dangerous voyage on 
the Atlantic ; in their many trials in the American 
wilderness ; and in the gloomy hour, when the storm 
of ministerial wrath which had been so long gather- 
ing, burst on their defenceless settlements. In all 
these trials they acted like men, whose destinies 
were under the special superintendence of an over- 
ruling Providence. The claims of their friends and 
kindred were in vain presented to their minds. 
Their hearts yearned towards those objects of afiec- 



tion and the pleasant places of their childhood ; but 
religious duty forbade them to submit to the com- 
mands of an arbitrary government, and they turned 
their backs upon their native country, with a fixed 
determination never to return. 

A stormy ocean in vain arrayed itself in unusual 
terrors. Their little bark was laden with a greater 
burden than Caesar and his fortunes. It bore the 
founders of a mighty republic. In their own esti- 
mation it contained the chosen church, and they 
felt as if under the special protection of heaven. 
The ocean which presented such obstacles to their 
escape, would preserve them from the corruptions 
of the old world. It placed them beyond the in- 
fluence of countries grown old in abuses. A bleak 
and barren shore awaited them upon their arrival; 
but there they were free from ecclesiastical perse- 
cution and political tyranny. They were freed 
from the mischievous example of institutions vicious 
in principle, and were at liberty to establish a so- 
cial community, whose members were far advanced 
in civilization upon a broad and natural basis. 

With these views upon their landing they entered 

into a social written compact, the first the world 

ever saw, by which it was agreed that the common 

will should be the law of the colony. They then 

4 



26 



chose a governor from among themselves, and es- 
tablished their republican government far from the 
debasing influence of Europe, without the sanction 
of a charter or grant under any royal seal, in 
the midst of the untouched forest ; with the canopy 
of heaven for a covering, and the waves of the At- 
lantic rolling between them and the abodes of ci- 
vilized man. 

Under such circumstances was the first English 
colony planted, which possessed the power of sus- 
taining itself; and to the hardships which its founders 
endured, and to the principles by which they were 
actuated, may be attributed the fearless and uncom- 
promising spirit of the colonists. They were al- 
ways prompt to oppose the pretensions of England, 
and when force was resorted to, they were found as 
ready to play their part in the field, as in the halls of 
debate. 

Another circumstance growing out of the reli- 
gious feelings, which entered so largely into the in- 
ducement to American colonization, had an impor- 
tant influence upon the institutions of the new co- 
lony. — Its founders were surrounded by their fami- 
lies, and among the moral causes which contributed 
to its stability and prosperity, we cannot assign too 
high a rank to the example of those devoted women, 



27 



who left the comforts to which they had been accus- 
tomed for the sake of their persecuted friends, and 
to sustain and cheer them amid their dangers and 
privations. It was no inconsiderable cause of the 
success of this settlement, that it was established 
upon the permanent foundation of domestic happi- 
ness ; and that its founders felt as husbands and fa- 
thers solicitous for the moral and religious educa- 
tion of the rising generation. Their views extend- 
ed to posterity. They were religious and educated 
themselves, and they intended that their descendants 
should be so too. Actuated by these motives, they 
made provision, shortly after their landing, for teach- 
ing the gospel and for the education of the children 
in the colony. The noble system of common 
schools, to which the eastern states are indebted for 
no small share of their reputation and happiness, 
and which is so fast spreading through the country, 
dispelling ignorance and preparing the rising ge- 
neration for the proper administration of our ex- 
cellent institutions, is a lasting monument of their 
wisdom, and will long remind their countrymen of 
the sagacity of the fathers of New England. 

These remarks, illustrating the forecast of the 
eastern colonists, are equally applicable to the man- 
ner in which the founders of the British colonies in 
general, framed their political institutions. It is 



28 



true, that in some of the provinces, they were indu- 
ced by different motives to migrate to this continent 
but they all considered these wilds as their perma- 
nent homes. 

The North American settlements were not like 
the colonies of Greece and Rome, mere extensions 
of the parent states to contiguous territories ; nor 
migrations to countries inhabited by people as much 
advanced as themselves in civilization. They were 
the commencement of new communities in a new 
world. Neither did they resemble the European 
settlements in the East and West Indies. These 
were commercial esteblishments, and the adventur- 
ers always looked with impatience for a return to 
their own country', with fortunes accumulated abroad 
as the reward of their industry and privations. The 
colony was regarded as a place of banishment, and 
they sought rather to carry away wealth, than to 
confer any lasting benefit upon the place of their 
temporary abode. These views essentially modifi- 
ed their policy and 'conduct. So long as they 
were permitted to pursue without interruption their 
schemes of gain, they took no interest in the wel- 
fare of the colony. Its legislation might be impo- 
litic, its privileges invaded, its vital interests ne- 
glected; but while they considered themselves 
.merely as sojourners, they did not feel called upon 



29 



to make personal sacrifices, in order to vindicate 
its political rights. 

Not so with the settlers of the North American 
colonies. They had turned their backs upon Eu- 
rope for ever, from motives which were not liable 
to be changed by the lapse of time. Their migra- 
tion was the permanent adoption of another coun- 
try. It was colonizing upon an original footing. 
The colonists were intelligent, educated and civil- 
ized. They had been taught by bitter, by personal 
experience, that the political institutions they had 
fled from, were not fitted to promote the freedom or 
happiness of the mass of the community. They had 
no inducements to copy the frame of their govern- 
ment from those, which at home were overgrown 
with the abuses of antiquity. Privileged orders 
had no charms for them. They were all equal in 
rank, in sufierings and in sacrifices. They were 
not compelled, from their relations with those 
around them, to erect a feudal system or a mag- 
nificent hierarchy in the American wilderness. All 
this was iudissolubly connected in their minds with 
imprisonment, persecution and exile. 

But they were placed here in a productive coun- 
try, where a virgin soil offered its treasures to their 
industry ; with all the arts of civilization to aid 



30 



iliem ; possessing all the experience, which the 
failures in government for four thousand years 
could teach, and free from the motives and interests, 
that have planted the principle of corruption and 
decay in the foundation of other governments. In 
the vigour of youth, and unshackled by prejudice, 
they commenced their course from the goal, which 
other nations had attained after centuries of exer- 
tion. Well were these things characterized, by a 
statesman*, whose eloquence is the ornament of his 
country, as the " happy auspices of a happy futu- 
'* rity ! Who would wish that his country's existence 
*' had otherwise begun ! Who would desire the 
" power of going back to the ages of fable ! Who 
" would wish for an origin obscured in the dark- 
*' ness of antiquity ! Who would wish for other em- 
" blazoning of his country's heraldry, or other or- 
" naments of her genealogy, than to be able to say 
" that her first existence was with intelligence ; her 
" first breath the inspirations of liberty ; her first 
" principle the truth of divine religion !" 

Under the operation of these causes, the colonies 
grew with unexampled rapidity. Before the close 
of a century a native population of European origin 
exceeding half a million, had established themselves 

* Mr. Webster's Oration at Plymouth, Dec. 22, 1820 



31 



on the eastern shores of North America. The co- 
lonies now began to attract the particular attention 
of the motlier country, and its parental care was 
displayed in projecting measures to appropriate 
their resources to its own use, and so to modify their 
governments as to prevent any effectual opposition 
to this ungenerous design. 

A course of reasoning similar to that, which had 
deprived the aborigines of all natural rights and 
appropriated their wealth to European use, now 
threatened to reduce the colonists to an inferior 
and dependent condition, and to monopolize their 
trade and resources. The lapse of a few years had 
made the inhabitants of the old world forget, that 
the colonists and themselves had a common origin ; 
and they began to regard them as if they had lost 
their cast by taking up their abode in a continent, 
which in their minds was associated with all that is 
uncultivated, ignorant and barbarous. While these 
natural associations depressed the colonists in the 
public esteem, the European monarchs were urging 
their claims to political sovereignty upon the 
ground, that their subjects could not expatriate 
themselves. The duty which a citizen owes to the 
community in which he lives and by whose laws 
he is protected from unjust violence, was perverted 
into the doctrine of perpetual and unalienable alle- 



32 



glance, and this principle was made the corner- 
stone of the colonial system. In establishing this 
system the European governments had in view a 
two-fold object. The first was national and was in- 
timately connected with the extension of their trade, 
and the other political. This latter aimed at the 
complete control of the colonies and to govern 
them by officers appointed in Europe. A rich 
liarvest was thus furnished for the dependents upon 
the court, and the American colonies became the 
receptacle for the decayed servants of the crown. 

The maxims of European policy towards America 
are few and comprehensive. They consisted in 
rendering the colony entirely subservient to the in- 
terests of the mother country ; in monopolizing its 
commerce and in retarding its progress towards im- 
provement, in order the more effectually to prolong 
its dependence. All foreign trade was prohibited 
to encourage the navigation of the mother country ; 
and all intercourse with the colonial possessions of 
other nations was forbidden, lest these commercial 
regulations should be evaded. In order to protect 
home industry, laws were enacted discouraging 
manufactures in the colonies ; and the raw materials 
produced there were sent to the ports of the parent 
kingdom, to be thence distributed to other nations, 
or to be manufactured for the use of the colonists. 



33 



Scarcely had they shaken off the bonds of religious 
intolerance, ere the desire of gain, sought to bind 
down the American continent, their place of re- 
fuge, in the chains of commercial monopoly, and 
to render it a mere dependency upon Europe. The 
communities, which were established here, were not 
only deprived of all transatlantic trade ; but of that 
intercourse with contiguous countries, which was so 
much more necessary to their comfort and pros- 
perity. They were not only prevented from di- 
recting their industry to those employments, which 
would best repay their labour ; and from trading 
with those countries, which furnished the cheapest 
supplies and afforded the best market : but by a ri- 
gorous application of the system to the whole con- 
tinent, they were shut out of the pale of improve- 
ment ; deprived of the stimulus, which a spirit of 
emulation among adjacent communities imparts in 
the pursuit of knowledge, and doomed to labour 
in an insulated colony for the prosperity of a trans- 
atlantic power, that rewarded their industry by mo- 
nopolizing its profits, and repaid their faithful al- 
legiance by obstructing them in their progress to 
civilization. 

A system so inherently unjust necessarily pro- 
voked opposition on the part of the inhabitants of the 
British provinces in North America ; and a series 
5 



of measures adopted by the mother country to carry 
it into effect, prepared the' way for the success of 
another essential part of the American system. 

The principles by which the colonists were ac- 
tuated, were entirely at variance with colonial de- 
pendence. They were indeed compelled after 
many violent struggles to partially submit to the 
navigation acts ; but even this qualified dependence 
was the cause of continual disputes, and to all 
pretensions to political supremacy, they offered the 
most determined resistance. 

It is worthy of remark, that in the British United 
American provinces, representative governments of 
a popular character were established previous to 
the British revolution. In the proprietary colonies 
of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Carolina, and New- 
Jersey, the political institutions were originally 
formed upon enlarged views of civil freedom. In 
Virginia a house of Burgesses was suddenly intro- 
duced by the colonists into their frame of govern- 
ment, without any authority from home, and very 
much against the wishes of the directors of the 
company. The original settlers of our own state 
were emigrants from Holland in the best period of 
her existence ; when that republic was invigorated 
with the spirit of new-born liberty. We accordingly 



35 



find them shortly after the transfer of the colony to 
the British crown, contending for the privilege of 
self-government, and compelling the Duke of York, 
who was the proprietor, to acquiesce in that charac- 
teristic right of an American community. The 
governments of the eastern provinces were essen- 
tially democratic, and it may be safely asserted that 
the public will was early manifested in the acts of 
all the colonial governments. In consequence 
of the popular form of their political institutions, 
their opposition to the pretensions of the mother 
country assumed an official shape. It was not the 
hasty ebullition of individual feeling, unauthorized 
and unsupported, but the result of deliberation, and 
evinced a widely-extended discontent. It could not 
be punished as the misconduct of a few riotous 
persons, but must be treated as the premeditated 
act of the whole community. 

The many instances of insubordination and dis- 
obedience in America, which are so much complained 
of by the English historians, are so many testimonies 
in behalf of the fearless spirit of the colonists, and 
show the insecure tenure of royal authority over 
them. It was never their intention to be controlled 
by a government on the other side of the Atlantic. 
They maintained, in the technical language of the 



36 



time, *' that the laws of England were bounded by 
the four seas, and did not reach America." The 
General Court of Massachusetts made this answer 
to a charge against that colony, of having disobey- 
ed the navigation acts ; and on another memorable 
occasion, upon information that a general govern- 
ment had been projected for all the colonies, the 
magistrates and clergy of that province unanimous- 
ly resolved, " that if such governor were sent, 
the colony ought not to receive him, but to defend 
its lawful possessions." 

The limits of this discourse will not permit an 
enumeration of the many acts of resistance offered 
by the inhabitants of the other provinces, to the 
colonial system of Great Britain, long before those 
difficulties, which immediately preceded the revolu- 
tion ; but I may be allowed to refer with pride and 
exultation to the testimony borne by Chalmers, the 
official historian of the British government, to their 
refractory spirit of independence. " The Ameri- 
" cans," says this writer, " have had all along a 
" reluctance to order and good government, since 
" their first establishment in their country. They 
" have been obstinate, undutiful and ungovernable 
" from the very beginning ; from their first infant 
" settlements in that country. They began to ma- 
'* nifest this spirit as early as the reign of Charles 



37 



" the First, and disputed our right of fishing on 
" their coasts in the times of the commonweaUh 
" and the protectorate." 

In these conflicting principles and views, may be 
distinctly traced the causes of the revolution. It 
was impossible, in the nature of things, that com- 
munities with such opposing interests and claims ; 
governed upon such different maxims ; and so se- 
vered by distance and sentiment, should long con- 
tinue to acknowledge a common authority. The 
voice of nature had decreed the independence of 
the United States, long before the continental con- 
gress resolved to vindicate that independence by 
arms. 

The expulsion of the French from Canada, soon 
brought the pretensions of England and her colo- 
nies into direct collision. Whilst France held that 
dangerous position in the interior, and stood ready 
to assist the colonies in case of difficulty. Great 
Britain was unwilling to add to the causes of dis- 
content. But after the conquest of Canada, and 
its cession at the peace of 1763, that obstacle being 
removed, a more systematic policy was adopted to 
strengthen the bonds of colonial dependence. The 
complete subjection of the colonies was to be se- 
cured by means of an army stationed in America, 



60 



and maintained at tlieir expense. The taxes to be 
raised, were not, however, to be at the control of 
the local assemblies, lest in time they might control 
the army ; but were to be laid and collected by the 
authority of parliament. It was also contemplated 
to render the executive and judicial departments of 
the American governments wholly dependent upon 
the British ministry ; to divide the colonies into 
provinces of more convenient size ; and to new- 
model the colonial department. In order the more 
effectually to execute this arbitrary design, all set- 
tlements in the interior were prohibited, with the 
view of keeping the civilized population more 
within the reach of the trade and power of the 
mother country. 

This indication of the arbitrary disposition of 
the British government, and its manifest determi- 
nation to reduce the colonists to unconditional sub- 
mission, united them as one nation in opposition to 
its authority. The spirit of the people was roused 
to open resistance. They appealed to the sword 
to sever the bond of union between England and 
her colonies, and a power independent of Europe 
arose on this side of the Atlantic. 

The feelings and principles of the civilized inha- 
bitants of America were now represented by an in- 



39 



dependent government, and embodied themselves in 
a course of national policy. This remarkable event, 
which when justly considered, will not yield in in- 
terest and importance to any that ever engaged the 
attention of historians, soon caused a material mo- 
dification in the colonial system. 

The statesmen of Europe were no longer at li- 
berty to regulate the affairs of America solely with 
reference to European interests. American interests 
were urged upon their attention, and were ably 
sustained by an American government. It is true, 
that these claims were not readily allowed. Euro- 
peans could not at once bring themselves to regard 
an American state as entirely independent, and of 
equal rank with the ancient kingdoms of the old 
world. The court of France considered our inde- 
pendence to be but little more than a transfer of 
allegiance ; and her incessant efforts to obtain an un- 
due influence in our public councils, evince her de- 
sire to render us partially dependent upon her- 
self. The other governments of Europe, with the 
exception of Sweden, were influenced by similar 
prejudices respecting the communities on this side 
of the Atlantic, and refused to acknowledge an in- 
dependence, which was already achieved ; until the 
course of events rendered the acknowledgment of 
little importance. Their pretensions and princi- 



40 



pies with regard to the inferiority of the western 
continent, had been engrafted by the practice of 
nearly three centuries upon the law of nations. 

The rivers which constituted our boundaries, 
had been shut from immemorial time by the jea- 
lousy of the powers, to whom they belonged, before 
they became boundary lines. The fisheries on the 
Grand Bank had been always enjoyed by the sub- 
jects of some European government, and partici- 
pation in them had been regulated by various 
treaty stipulations. All access to the islands in 
the American seas was debarred by a rigorous co- 
lonial system, and the vast territories which were 
still dependent upon Europe, and comprehended 
far the greatest portion of the continent, were sub- 
jected to the same strict monopoly. 

Besides these obstacles, which were presented by 
European pretensions to the enjoyment of our in- 
dependence, there were others growing out of po- 
pular prejudices ; the condition of the country and 
the character of the system from which it had just 
been emancipated. Among these we need only enu- 
merate the state of manufactures and the mechanic 
arts ; the estimation in which domestic productions 
were held, and the means of internal intercourse at 
the close of the revolutionary war, to show how de- 
pendent we were upon Europe ; and by recurring 



41 



to the regulations of the British government repres- 
sing colonial manufactures, and to her jealousy of all 
intercommunication between the different provinces, 
we discover the causes of that dependence, and the 
means of remedying the evil. 

The sagacious men, who established the Ameri- 
can confederacy and reconciled the discordant in- 
terests of its different members under one govern- 
ment, perceived that our independence even then was 
but partially achieved, and planned a system of poli- 
cy, well designed to complete the emancipation of this 
country from all its colonial burdens. The religious 
liberty, for the sake of which their ancestors came to 
America, was secured under a free and tolerant go- 
vernment, and made the cementing principle of our 
union. Political independence had been obtained 
after a severe struggle, and our right of self-govern- 
ment formally admitted. Commercial freedom alone 
was wanting. Whilst our intercourse with the rest 
of America, depended upon the permission of the 
governments of Europe, and American commerce 
was shackled by colonial regulations, our indepen- 
dence was incomplete. Free trade, therefore, be- 
came necessary to the full enjoyment of our rights 
as a nation. This constituted an essential part of 
6 



42 



the American system, and the eilbrts of the govern- 
ment were directed to its accomplishment. 

Most of its foreign and domestic policy, has had 
in view the establishment of this principle. The 
Federal Constitution originated in the desire to free 
the trade of the United States from the embarrass- 
ments, to which it was still subjected by the colonial 
policy of Europe. The war with France and the late 
war with Great Britain, grew out of the conflicting 
principles of the commercial systems of America 
and Europe, and the influence of this great and im- 
portant maxim of free trade as promulgated by the 
government of the United States, may be easily 
seen in every part of their history. It may well be 
called a great and important principle. It compre- 
hends within its scope, not only the freedom of the 
trade of the United States ; but the entire eman- 
cipation of the rest of the continent from the colonial 
system, and the establishment of a new commercial 
policy, founded upon principles of equality and 
exact reciprocity. 

The system of reciprocity in trade, which was so 
early adopted by this country, was with the view of 
promoting its success. The government instantly 
perceived the importance of an unshackled com- 



43 



merce, and wisely determined not to sacrifice the 
essential interests of the country for any present ad- 
vantage ; but rather to submit to temporary incon- 
veniences, for the sake of permanent benefits. The 
reciprocal policy is one of self-denial, but it has 
great and lasting results in view. It aims at abol- 
ishing the monopolizing system ; at emancipating all 
colonies ; at compelling each community to bear its 
own fiscal burdens ; and at the abrogation of those 
rules of international law, which have grown out of 
the colonial system of Europe. 

As one of the indispensable means of success, and 
to diminish the sacrifices which are the price of its 
ascendancy, it inculcates the necessity of internal 
improvement. Not merely the improvement of the 
channels of internal intercourse ; though these are 
of no small importance in enabling difierent por- 
tions of the Union to supply their relative wants : 
but the development of our resources, advancement 
in science and knowledge, the encouragement of 
manufactures at home, and the naturalization of all 
those arts and institutions, which distinguish a ci- 
vilized, from a barbarous community. 

The natural state of trade, which consists in a 
free exchange of commodities, unburdened by im- 
posts and duties, was not applicable to the condi- 



44 



tion of a country just emerging from colonial de- 
pendence. The inhabitants of the American colo- 
nies, had not been permitted to apply their industry 
to such employments, as would best repay their la- 
bour. By commercial regulations and colonial re- 
strictions, they had been confined to those, which 
tended to increase the navigation, and gave employ- 
ment to the home industry of the mother country. 
This artificial state of things interposed great ob- 
stacles, to the entrance of an American state into 
the great mart of nations. She was obliged to con- 
tend for her claims to commercial equality, long 
after her right to political equality had been for- 
mally admitted ; and in this latter contest she could 
only resort, to the comparativelj' inefficient arms of 
legislative enactment. After the adoption of the 
federal constitution had placed these weapons in the 
hands of the general government, they were effec- 
tually employed by the revenue acts of the first 
congress. 

These laws were formed upon the great princi- 
ples of reciprocity, always keeping in view the ne- 
cessities of the public treasury — the state of all do- 
mestic manufactures, and the ability of the nation 
to supply itself with articles of prime necessity. 
These considerations were wisely permitted to mo- 
dify the reciprocal system, which if carried out in 



45 



its full extent, would have burdened the staple com- 
modities of each and every country with similar du- 
ties, to those imposed by the revenue laws of those 
nations upon the staple productions of the United 
States. It was, however, adopted so far as the cir- 
cumstances of the country permitted, and was par- 
ticularly applied to the navigating interests, upon 
which the old colonial system had most severely 
borne. 

Such was the policy, which the circumstances of 
the country forced upon the government of the 
United States. It was hostile to the system of Eu- 
rope, and of course it has encountered a constant 
opposition from that quarter. The European go- 
vernments have opposed it by intrigue, sometimes 
by force. Foreign interests always, and sometimes 
the prejudices of our own countrymen, have inter- 
posed obstacles to its success. 

It is not the least, among the evils of a state of 
dependence, that it renders its subjects unfit for the 
full enjoyment of the advantages proceeding from 
a change in their condition. Their habitual mode 
of thinking, influences them after they have sha- 
ken off their bonds. Their movements still indi- 
cate, that they were brought up in shackles, and that 
the iron chains of dependence have sunk deep into 
their souls. To this state of feeling may be as- 



46 



cribed the difliculty, which exists in eradicating the 
prejudices, that keep all colonists in a condition of 
habitual dependence, after their political connexion 
with the mother country has been dissolved. 

The statesmen of Europe were not ignorant of 
this prejudice, and they endeavoured to avail them- 
selves of it, in establishing their commercial relations 
with the new republics. Shortly after the close of 
the revolutionary war, the celebrated Brissott wrote 
a work to persuade the world, that it would be un- 
wise in us to manufacture or produce any thing, that 
was produced or manufactured in France. The 
famous work of Lord Sheffield, which produced 
such a decisive effect upon public opinion in Eng- 
land, and prevented the passage of a law brought 
forward by Mr. Pitt in 1 783, to place our inter- 
course upon an equal and liberal footing, teaches 
the same doctrine with regard to British manufac- 
tures. It inculcates the principle, that the United 
States are esseuti^lly dependent upon Europe, and 
that by judicious commercial regulations, the same 
monopoly of their carrying trade, and the same ad- 
vantages in their commerce, may be obtained as ex- 
isted before their separation from Great Britain. 

This work was unfortunately made the text-book 
of the British government, in all its commercial ar- 
rangements with this country, and has proved an 



47 



abundant source of difficulties. It aims to secure 
to England a monopoly of American commerce v 
and especially of the carrying trade between the 
two countries. Having relinquished the power of 
directly effecting that object, it now seeks the same 
result by imposing burdens on the shipping of the 
United States, and by availing itself of the habits 
and prejudices engendered in a state of colonial de- 
pendence. 

These efforts to stay the progress of a great peo- 
ple have been unavailing. The policy of the fede- 
ral government has been directed to correct the 
evils entailed upon us by the colonial system, and 
to cure the prejudices which were its legitimate re- 
sults. It has proved eminently successful. 

The first half century has scarcely closed since 
our birth as an independent power, and what mo- 
mentous changes have taken place ! Our own 
wealthy metropolis even now presents striking marks 
of the helpless and dependent state of its early in- 
habitants. Dwelling houses still exist here, which 
were built of bricks, that the colonists were obliged 
to import from Holland. Little more than a cen- 
tury has passed since the date of their erection, and 
what a contrast ! On the uncultivated island of the 
Manhadoes stands a city — the commercial empo- 



48 



riumofa new world, greater in importance than 
any in the native country of its founders. The si- 
lent forest has disappeared, and in its stead are 
crowded streets alive with the bustle of civilized 
men. A capacious harbour, which then only gave 
shelter to the canoes of the aborigines, is now filled 
with shipping, that crowd from every port to pour 
their tribute into the great mart of American com- 
merce ; and a new application of power by Ameri- 
can genius has peopled the then lonely, but always 
magnificent Hudson, with a novel species of naviga- 
tion, which move over the waters self-impelled and 
self-directed. 

The parent colony of New England, that in its 
infancy was saved from famine by the unexpected 
arrival of a provision ship, has now expanded into six 
powerful states, rich in a native population, and 
abounding in wealth, industry, science and all the arts 
of civilization. Other communities, too, on the banks 
of the Mississippi and on the shores of Erie and of 
Huron, claim her as their origin, and surpass in 
power and numbers, the most sanguine expectations 
as to the future growth of that infant colony. Th e 
states, that were formed from the old North- West 
Territory — a territory that within the memory of 
the present generation was the abode of Indian 
tribes, — now own a population nearly equal to that 



49 



of the whole provinces, when some members of this 
society were in their infancy; and all these great 
and growing republics, refer back to the landing at 
Plymouth as the era of their birth, and hail that 
settlement as their common mother. 

Instead of several distinct communities, thinly 
scattered through thirteen provinces along the sea- 
coast, we find a dense and united population pour- 
ing into the interior, accompanied by the arts of ci- 
vilization, and the refinements of social and culti- 
vated communities. Educated and intelligent man 
is taking the place of the savage, and is fast ad- 
vancing to the borders of the Pacific ocean, making 
the wilderness to smile like a garden, and "sowing 
towns and villages as it were broadcast through the 
country." 

The shipping which at the formation of the fede- 
ral government, was inadequate to the transporta- 
tion of our own exports, now whitens every sea with 
its canvass, and bears the varied productions of our 
soil to every quarter of the globe, that is open to 
American enterprize. The striped bunting, which 
has within so few years appeared among the sym- 
bols of national authority, now floats in every port, 
and at the same moment excites the jealousy of a 
power self-styled, the mistress of the sea, and com- 
7 



50 



pels the corsairs of the Mediterranean to pay ho- 
mage to the laws of civilized nations. 

The extensive American territories, all access to 
which at the era of our revolution, was debarred by 
European jealousy, as if they had belonged to an- 
nother planet, have profited by the glorious ex- 
ample of this country, and shaken off their colonial 
fetters. Their emulation has been excited by our 
success ; their patriotism, has been stimulated by our 
prosperity ; their desire of self-government has been 
warmed by contemplating the operation of our free 
institutions. 

The crepescular light, which first appeared in the 
north, and now illuminates the whole hemisphere, 
was the dawing of their own freedom. They have 
awakened from the slumber of slavery, assumed their 
rank in the family of nations, and the American con- 
tinent from the St. Lawrence to its southern ex- 
tremity, is declared free as the bounty of Providence 
created it, to the commerce and enterprize of the 
human race. Communities, each occupying terri- 
tories greater in extent than the whole United 
States, have successively dissolved their colonial 
connexion with Europe, and at the moment of de- 
claring their own freedom have augmented the in- 
dependence of those who preceded them, and 



51 



pledged their national existence against the re-esta- 
blishment of the colonial system. The political 
institutions of nations, whose fathers never heard 
of the name of civil freedom, are modelled after 
the popular constitutions of the United States. 
A community of independent powers, all possess- 
ing representative governments, now occupy the 
western world, and interpose an insuperable obsta- 
cle to the pretensions of Europe. The lofty plains 
of Mexico and Peru ; the fertile banks of the Ori- 
noco and La Plata ; even the awful summits of the 
Andes resound with the exhilarating watch-words of 
liberty and independence ! 

The great principle of non-conformity — of dis- 
sent from the religious system; abjuration of the 
political institutions ; and resistance to the commer- 
cial policy of Europe, is at last ascendant. 

Advance, then, ye rising generations ! To you 
is entrusted the completion of this great experi- 
ment. On you, your country relies for the fulfil- 
ment of her hopes. To you, she looks for the reali- 
zation of that glorious promise, which is held out to 
mankind by her past history, and her present insti- 
tutions. To you she confides the sacred deposit of 
the freedom of the world. By the toils and suffer- 
ings of your fathers — ^by the martyrs of the revolu- 



52 



tion— by the blood poured out like water, by the pa- 
triots of humanity in every clime and every age, in 
the same godlike cause — she implores you to be 
faithful to her trust. She adjures you to persevere 
in the course, which your history has marked out — 
to consider nothing as finished, while any thing re- 
mains undone, until the American system is trium- 
phant, and you are as completely separated from 
Europe by character and policy, as by the eternal 
barrier which heaven has placed between us. 



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